Invasion – Recap – Episode 1-3

Archive

If you haven’t seen Serenity yet, you should do so. Like now. The box office hasn’t been so good so this one may not get as long a run as it should have. I would say it’s the best science-fiction movie of the year (and I’ve seen some pretty good sci-fi this year (and no, I’m not talking about Episode III)). I was a big fan of Firefly so I had set the bar pretty high one and it still manages to surprise me.

On the non-movie plugging front, let’s get to the recapping.

In a nice touch, tonight’s show begins with Dave taping a message for his blog (which ABC has been running on the Invasion subsection of their site for the last couple of months. He helpfully recaps the first couple episodes while taping this message. We also find out that Dave is still trying to identify the ring they found in the car trunk last week.

In the Underlay household, Mariel zones out while washing some dishes but Tom covers. Russ stops by to drop off Jesse’s headphones. Both Tom and Mariel are anxious to leave so Russ gets appointed the impromptu babysitter.

Jesse and Kira are on their way back to the Underlay home. They briefly discuss the people who are still missing before noticing a partially submerged and upside down trailer. Kira decides they should investigate and the two swim out.

While exploring the camper, Russ notices a strange light under the sun-roof (similar to the previous lights we have seen). He calls Kira over to see the light but before she can respond Russ is thrown backwards as the glass shatters.

Kira rushes back to her house and finds Russ there. Russ, Kira and Rose rush to the trailer and Russ dives in the water and swims towards the now mostly submerged trailer. Jesse is unconscious but floating in an air pocket. Russ pulls Jesse to safety and rushes him to the hospital.

Meanwhile Dave is meeting with a local jewelry dealer, Josh Briems, (portrayed by Armin Shimmerman) in an effort to determine the origin of the wedding ring. Josh is able to determine that he didn’t do the engraving and finds a date on the metal fitting of 2/14/86 (which pretty much nixes the idea it would be Mariel’s missing ring).

Larkin is getting ready to cover a pointless hurricane recovery story and is complaining about it when she sees three unmarked black trucks drive by with a helicopter escort. She goes to the sheriff and asks him about the trucks. He said he didn’t authorize them and surmises they are probably military. Larkin says she knows there is more going on here.

Sheriff Underlay introduces Larkin to the top ranking army official in the town who tells her that the trucks were with the air force. He claims there was a problem at a sewage plant in Key Largo and they were helping to clean things up.

As soon as they leave the official Larkin tells Underlay she knows they lied. The plant closed down a little over a month ago and Larkin herself covered the closure. Underlay warns her against digging too deeply and cautions that she could lose her career or worse if she pries too much into this.

Back at the hospital Mariel and Russ argue a bit. He is looking for someone to blame over what happened to Jesse but he never quite gets around to actually assigning blame. He still manages to upset Mariel however.

While Mariel goes off to stare at some more water, Jesse has a reaction to something. It turns out he’s having a bad reaction to the blood he was given. When Mariel is summoned she asks for different blood. Russ asks if it was the wrong blood-type and she said it wasn’t. Russ asks how she could know and Mariel tells Russ it was her blood.

Elsewhere in the town, Dave has run into Kira. Kira, obviously shaken, tells him about what happened to Jesse and asks for a ride home. Dave, after confirming they had a radio so they could check on Jesse, is happy to oblige.

When Dave and Kira get to the Underlay home, Dave tries, unsuccessfully, to communicate with the hospital. Kira tells him they are pretty busy over there so it may take a while to get a response. It is then that Dave notices a picture of Kira’s mom and we learn a bit about her. Even though she died in a plane crash, Kira has always somewhat blamed herself. Dave manages to turn this into a joke about what happened with Jesse and the two share a laugh.

Once Jesse is stabilized, Russ talks with Mariel again. He asks her what is going on with her and she says she doesn’t know. She has no idea why her blood was not accepted by Jesse’s body.

Russ then goes to talk with a lab technician who says that they aren’t even sure Jesse got the right blood as things are a mess because of the hurricane. He finds Dr. Underlay’s blood work and says it will have to be retested; They’ve had a few results like this which the technician attributes to a mis-calibrated machine. He says that if they were real results they would be much more in line with what you would find in a dolphin or a whale.

Sheriff Underlay and Larkin are on their way to Key Largo. Larkin says that this isn’t the right way and Underlay assures her that this is just a different way to get there. Surprisingly it turns out it actually just is an alternate route (or an alternate location) and Underlay shows Larkin a military operation underway.

The military people are recovering the wreckage of a search and rescue helicopter that went down during the hurricane. When questioned as to what it was doing flying in a hurricane the sheriff tells Larkin that the military told him it was looking for a weather plane.

The sheriff also cautions Larkin that she could not report on what he was showing her as it was classified. He said if she did so she would forever lose him as both a source and a friend. Larkin then noticed some men in hazmats suits carrying a box. She asked Underlay what it was but he had no answer for her.

In the hospital, Russ apologizes to Mariel about their argument earlier. He still isn’t sure if he blamed anyone but he wants her to know that he doesn’t blame her for what happened. Russ then tells Mariel what the tech said about the blood work and she reacts in a surprised and somewhat alarmed fashion.

Back at the Underlay house Dave and Kira, after Kira uses some persuasion, finally manage to learn about Jesse’s condition. They are relieved to hear that he is in good condition and decide to go visit him. As they leave the room we see the back of a photograph that Dave had been looking at earlier. There is a tag on the back of the frame that says, “Tom and Grace Underlay ‘Two Become One’ February 14, 1986”.

As the episode draws to a close everyone is in the hospital greeting Jesse as he wakes up. Russ tells Jesse that Kira saved his life, presumably as much for Kira’s benefit as for it being true. Jesse thanks her and then he lets Russ know that he saw something in the water. Before he can say what that something may have been however Mariel enters the room and is also happy to see her son on the road to recovery.

Mariel pulls Russ aside and has a brief conversation with him. They thank each other for their support today and Mariel tells Russ that the lab re-tested her blood and everything checked out fine this time around.

The episode concludes as it began, with Dave taping another report for his blog. We interchange between shots of Dave compiling information and Mariel in the tub, fascinated by the water pouring out the faucet. The last shot is of Mariel submerging herself underwater. After a few seconds her eyes open, the water bubbles stop and Mariel gives us a really creepy smile.

A rather strong character and tension building episode this week. We still did not get a lot of stuff happening but there’s a definite sense that something will be happening soon. The previews for next week’s episode certainly help back that feeling up.

The interaction between Dave and Kira was nice to see as well as it helped define Kira’s character and showed us a side of Dave other than the kooky conspiracy nut side.

I also enjoyed the interplay between Larkin and Tom as she keeps digging for answers. At times the sheriff seems helpful but cautious and at other times he seems far more deceptive than that. I still think he’s being helpful only to further deceive but I’m not certain about that. And uncertainty is a good thing here.

And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the effectiveness of the final shot. It could have easily come off as hilariously cheesy but they managed to make it creepy.

The main story of the episode was a little weak as there was never any real feeling that Jesse might not be okay by the end of the episode. In one scene there was far more drama over whether the sheriff was leading Larkin to a close encounter (As soon as she said that this wasn’t the way to Key Largo, I thought she was definitely about to be replaced or implanted or whatever the hell the aliens are doing and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one) than there was in the entire Jesse’s hurt story.

And because Jesse was hurt this kept Russ at the hospital for the majority of the episode and prevented him from doing any sleuthing on the alien front.